Big-Leaf Mahogany on CITES Appendix II: Big Challenge, Big Opportunity

Abstract

On 15 November 2003, big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King, Meliaceae), the most valuable widely traded Neotropical timber tree, gained strengthened regulatory protection from its listing on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is a United Nations-chartered agreement signed by 164 nations. Its objective is to ensure that international trade in animals and plants does not threaten species survival. Appendix II listing, the second-most stringent category of CITES protection, requires verification that internationally traded individuals or volumes of listed species have been harvested legally and in a manner that is not detrimental to their role in ecosystems where they naturally occur. This decision, made through a two-thirds majority vote at the twelfth Convention of Parties (CoP12) in November 2002, recognizes that international intervention is necessaryto control illegal harvests and to maintain viable populations across mahogany’s natural range from Mexico through Central and South America as far south as Bolivia.

Citation

GROGAN, JAMES; BARRETO, PAULO. 2005. Big-Leaf Mahogany on CITES Appendix II: Big Challenge, Big Opportunity. Conservation Biology, Pages 973–976 Volume 19, No. 3,